Sirte- Libya (PANA) -- Researchers and policymakers must refocus their attention on finding a cure for HIV/AIDS to safeguard the future of mothers and the unborn children, 300,000 of whom are infected in Africa every year, a top UN official said here. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that economic crisis should not be an excuse for UN member states to abandon commitment to the fight against HIV and AIDS, but should rather be ''an impetus'' to make the right investments that will yield be nefits for generations to come. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A summit attended by people living with AIDS, AIDS commi ssioners, government representatives, development organisations and the UN has e n dorsed a radical plan to end Aids especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, organizers s a id here Monday. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The World Bank Board Thursday approved a US$6-million loan to Mali as additional funding for the country's Multi-sectoral HIV/AIDS Con trol Project (MAP), the World Bank said in a statement made available to PANA Fr i day in Bamako. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua has sent a bill to th e national assembly (parliament) which, if passed into law, will make it an offe n ce to discriminate against any person on the grounds of actual or perceived HIV s tatus. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced Friday that it would issue a code of conduct within the coming weeks f o r all suppliers of goods and services in an effort to prevent, detect and sancti o n anyone involved in misuse of its financing. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced Friday that it will issue a code of conduct for all suppliers of goods and services in an effort to prevent, detect and sanction anyone involved in misuse of its financing. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The Zambian government said it would target over 3 milli on people, in particular pregnant women and HIV-exposed children, under the prog r amme to be administered from the 15 million Canadian dollars grant committed to t he scaling up of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) s e rvices in nine African countries with high prevalence rates. Full text...

Eldoret- Kenya (PANA) -- International scientists working in the field of HIV/AID S research in western Kenya have stumbled on a new challenge involving the testi n g and effectively curbing the spread of the disease amongst discordant couples. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Musician Abou Thiam will on Wednesday begins the 7th edition of his annual caravan, called 'Initiative Fuuta', meant raise consciousness on dangers of HIV/AIDS and other activities affecting the people. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- The World Bank will grant US$ 15 million to the gove rnment of Burundi within the framework of the implementation of the second multi s ector project of fight against HIV/AIDS over the next three years, PANA learnt f r om official sources here. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Ethiopia's First Lady Azeb Mesfin Tuesday called for greater political power for women to prop their influence in the war against the triple threat of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis on the continent. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Ethiopia's First Lady Azeb Mesfin Tuesday called for greater political power for women to prop their influence in the war against the triple threat of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis on the continent. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Ethiopia's First Lady Azeb Mesfin Tuesday called for greater political power for women to prop their influence in the war against the triple threat of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis on the continent. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The Libyan National Centre of Prevention and Fight Again st Transmittable and Endemic Diseases here on Sunday held a workshop on the norm s and processes of treatment of HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) - – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday announced that it had signed a pilot partnership agreement with the St a ndard Bank, Africa’s largest banking group in terms of assets, geographical spre a d and market capitalization, to offer 'pro bono' support to Global Fund grant re c ipients in selected African countries. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- HIV/AIDS control associations from Congo and the Dem ocratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Thursday agreed to join their efforts to fight t h e pandemic, a source close to the Congolese health ministry said here Friday. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- Women leaders in various sectors will work with the Gabonese ministry in charge of AIDS control to help lower HIV prevalence in the country, where the current average is 5. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- International Human rights watchdog, the Human Rights Wa tch Tuesday raised the red flag over the fate of over 40,000 children in Kenya s u ffering from the HIV/AIDS virus, saying they were likely to die in the next 24 m o nths if they do not receive antiretroviral treatment (ART). Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- A community-based organisation caring for people living with HIV/AIDS in Mali, CESAC, has placed more than 4,000 patients under anti-retroviral therapy (ART), officials told PANA here Monday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Promising tests of a drug for HIV/AIDS were carried out i n South Africa and Cote d'Ivoire, Jean-Claude Chermann, renowned French virology specialist, declared here. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The Supreme National Aids Control Council (HCNLS) in Mali, which met in ordinary session Thursday under the chairmanship of President Amad o u Toumani Touré, has recommended the intensification of prevention of mother-to- c hild HIV transmission (PMTCT) across the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The 15th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) in Africa rounded off in Dakar on Sunday, with participants recommending more efforts and resources to further contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the continent. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- UNICEF has offered a technical plateau for HIV/AIDS s creening among newly-born babies from AIDS-positive mothers in Gabon as well as m edicines to the Owendo peadiatrical Hospital, near Libreville, an official source here told PANA Saturday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The director of the National Agency of Research on HIV/A IDS and viral hepatitis (ANRS), Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, declared on F riday in Dakar that there is no vaccine in the short-term to fight the HIV/AIDS e pidemic. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Angered by their exclusion from the health sectors in mo st countries of the world, traditional medical practitioners Friday protested th e ir lot in Dakar, Senegal, saying there was the need for modern and traditional m e dicines to cooperate and collaborate. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Africa needs very strong leadership that can help streng then its response to HIV/AIDS by creating an environment favourable for the war a gainst the pandemic, Rwandan First Lady, Mrs. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has called on HIV/AIDS activists to do more towards preventing further spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, while stressing the importance and need of house-to-house sensitization campaign among communities. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- The Global Fund has thrown out Namibia's round eight application for US$160 million to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, after the country failed to meet standards set by the Fund's technical review panel, government said Thursday. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The public service in Mozambique is seriously suffer ing the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic which translates into high levels of mo r tality and absenteeism and makes it difficult to meet planned targets, according to the Permanent Secretary of the Public Service Ministry, Eduardo Nhampossa. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The association of Partnership for Child Development, with the support of the World Bank, will launch simultaneously in Senegal and Switze r land, a documentary from the book: "Courage and Hope: The Story of sub-Saharan H I V Positive Teachers". Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The number of HIV-positive people with access to antiret roviral drugs (ARVs) in Benin leapt from 400 in 2002 to 11,350 last September, a c cording to official figures published on Monday in Cotonou. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The International Association for the Promotion of Tradi tional Medicines (PROMETRA) and the University Morehouse School of Medicine of A t lanta in Georgia, US, here Monday launched five products against the virus of th e HIV/AIDS, in the form of plants powder coming from four African countries. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The US embassy in Nigeria says it disbursed over US$ 1 b illion to support the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria in the past four years, p romising more funds in the coming year, according to its ambassador, Robin Renee Sanders. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AI DS, has commended the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) "for h aving made progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, " Dr. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma has urged all Sierra Leoneans to get tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, as the World AIDS Day is observed in the country and around the world. Full text...

Geneva- Switzerland (PANA) -- A mathematical model developed by a group of specialists in the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that using annual, universal voluntary HIV testing, followed by immediate Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) - irrespective of clinical stage or CD4 count - reduces new cases by 95% within 10 years. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- The Bakgatla tribe of Botswana is to resume its age-long but abandoned tradition of male circumcision, after scientific studies revealed that circumcised males are less likely to be infected with HIV than their uncircumcised counterparts. Full text...